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News and commentary from the Pro-Life Action League
You are currently browsing the archives for the Clinic Witness category.
Domenico di Bartolo's Madonna of Humility
During our Face the Truth Tour a few weeks ago in Cincinnati, one of the local pro-life activists who came out to join us for the day reminded me of something that can’t be repeated often enough.
He and I were talking about various ways to fight abortion, and he remarked that one of the most important things any of us can do is to strive for personal holiness in our everyday lives. I couldn’t agree with him more.
Eric Scheidler has talked in two recent posts about the need for pro-lifers to be diplomats for the cause, and to always keep in mind when we’re talking with people who are pro-choice that our purpose isn’t to “score points” but rather to persuade them to agree with us about the value of life in the womb.
Occasionally, a single conversation with someone who is pro-choice may result in an on-the-spot conversion to the pro-life position. But I suspect that instances like these are more the exception than the rule. [Continue reading ...]
Not that this should come as any surprise, but Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius doesn’t understand pro-life activism.
The Associated Press covered yesterday’s NARAL luncheon where Sebelius gave the keynote address, noting that she mentioned the Pro-Life Action League’s protest of the event:
Outside the event, a dozen anti-abortion protesters silently held large grisly signs depicting aborted fetuses, and Sebelius mentioned the demonstration in her speech.
“I know that some people were a bit appalled at walking through the demonstrators as you came to this lunch,” Sebelius said. “It is a discomfort when you’re coming to lunch, but think about the women who are trying to tap into the health services they desperately need who have to go through that kind of gauntlet in order to access all-too-infrequent services.”
Eric Scheidler leads pro-lifers in song outside Planned Parenthood in Aurora, IL [Photo by Matt Yonke]
This past Sunday, October 2, marked the 4th anniversary of the dark day that Planned Parenthood opened the doors of their “Abortion Fortress,” the first of their mega-centers which are now spreading across the nation.
Though it might seem counter-intuitive, the Pro-Life Action League marked this grim day with a “Do-it Yourself” pro-life concert on the vacant lot across the street from the midwest’s largest abortion clinic.
The DIY concert is an idea League Executive Director Eric Scheidler came up with to celebrate the closing of the second 40 Days for Life vigil in 2008 and we’ve held them several times since. Pro-lifers bring a lawn chair and copies of their favorite hymn or praise song and an instrument if they play one, and we sing praises to God thanking Him for the victories He’s granted us as a movement. [Continue reading ...]
Note: This is Eric Scheidler’s fourth and final report on his pro-life mission to Germany and Austria. Previous reports covered his participation in the March for Life in Berlin, activities with German Youth for Life activities and meeting with Austrian Youth for Life.
Eric praying at Klinik Stapf abortuary in Munich, Sept. 21 [Photo by Bryan Kemper]
On the warm, sunny afternoon of September 21, I stood alone on the sidewalk outside Klinik Stapf, the oldest abortuary in Munich, Germany, praying a Rosary. But why alone? Where was Bryan Kemper, my partner in this pro-life mission to Germany and Austria?
Bryan was across the street—banished there by a law enacted in Munich earlier this year that allows only one person to stand outside an abortion facility at a time. But far worse, the law actually bans sidewalk counseling.
For those of who have been fighting unfair restrictions on sidewalk counseling like Chicago’s Bubble zone, the Munich law is incomprehensible. Indeed, it has been a terrible blow to pro-life activists in Munich, who estimate that 50-80 babies will be killed as a direct result of this law, babies whose mothers would have been reached by sidewalk counselors. [Continue reading ...]
Note: This is the second of several reports on League executive director Eric Scheidler’s recent pro-life mission in Germany and Austria. Find his first report here.
Youth for Life after the Berlin March for Life, Sept 17 [Photo by Kris van den Hove]
The evening after the huge March for Life in Berlin, I joined 80 members of the German Youth for Life group at the Singer 109 Youth Hostel for a pro-life conference, moderated by spokesman Matthias Loechner.
The German YFL is a fairly new group, and the conference was intended to inspire them with presentations by leaders from several established international pro-life groups. [Continue reading ...]
The Pro-Life Action League’s Life Witness Prayer Book—Click the picture to get your copy today!
The Pro-Life Action League has recently re-tooled and redesigned our Life Witness Prayer Book and we wanted to be sure the pro-life community was aware of this great resource as we head into the fall 40 Days for Life campaign.
You can purchase yours today at the Pro-Life Action League’s Activism Store for only $10. Order 5 books or more and they’re yours for only $8 apiece—that’s a 20% discount!
The Life Witness Prayer Book is the perfect companion to bring along for prayer at the abortion clinic, especially for the one-hour slots most people do during 40 Days for Life.
The book is divided into four sections, each of which has been specifically designed to take one hour to pray through. Each section is centered around one of the sets of Mysteries of the Rosary with many other helpful prayers, devotions and scripture readings designed to complement the focus of that set of Mysteries. [Continue reading ...]
Yesterday on Morning Edition, National Public Radio’s national morning news magazine, a story ran about the Justice Department taking a “tougher stance” on abortion protesters.
The story profiles the work of the Department of Justice’s National Task Force on Violence Against Health Care Providers. The task force, created to combat the supposed scourge of violence against abortion workers back in 1998, prosecutes violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, but was almost never utilized after President Bush was elected in 2000.
Since President Obama took office in 2008, it’s been a different story. The task force has been revitalized and has already filed eight cases of FACE violations. Planned Parenthood and National Abortion Federation representatives make clear in the story that they’re working with the task force to encourage further persecution of Americans who oppose abortion. [Continue reading ...]
The fifth year of protests at Planned Parenthood’s notorious “Abortion Fortress” in Aurora, Illinois commenced this past Saturday with a great turnout of pro-life stalwarts. Black clouds loomed over the horizon as the protest got underway, and by the end we made our final prayers under driving rain.
Anticipating a lower than usual turnout with vacations and back-to-school activities, as well as a competing pro-life prayer breakfast in the Joliet Diocese, I brought a contingent of large signs. That way, the protest would still make a big visual impact, even with fewer volunteers.
But in the event, turnout was great. While 50 protestors walked the picket line with smaller signs, another dozen held large signs at he side of the road depicting an unborn baby, a newborn and a toddler, followed by a sign showing Our Lord Jesus weeping over the body of an aborted baby with the message, Abortion Kills His Children. This sequence of 4 signs was repeated 3 times.
Because of the heavy rain at the conclusion of the protest, I refrained from offering my usual reflections on the pro-life battle, but simply concluded with the Our Father and a verse of “Amazing Grace.”
Later that day I learned about the deluge that struck during a Mass at World Youth Day in Spain at around the same time as the protest.
Though the rain in Aurora was nothing in comparison to the freak storm in Madrid, I felt a special kinship with the pilgrims there, to whom Pope Benedict declared, “Your strength is greater than the rain.”
Indeed, there is tremendous strength in the pro-life movement, which is growing both here in the United States and throughout the world. God’s Grace is pouring down upon us as as fight to restore legal protection to His precious unborn children.
Last April, League staffer Matt Yonke and I were praying out at the notorious Planned Parenthood abortion center in Aurora, Illinois when an ambulance went into the parking lot to transport a woman to the emergency room. We acquired the 911 audio through a FOIA request, and produced a video to document it.
Since then, we’ve collected a growing list of similar videos, with pro-lifers across the country documenting 911 calls, ambulance transports and other medical emergencies at abortion facilities.
Thanks to the dedicated presence of pro-life activists right on the front lines outside America’s abortion facilities, the danger that abortion poses for women is being exposed.
Matt and I have put together a new playlist of the abortion emergency videos we’ve found up until now:
This playlist includes 17 videos so far, and there are many more out there to add. If you know of an abortion emergency video that should be included in this playlist, please provide a link in the comments section.
Meanwhile, make sure that you’ve got a camera (preferably a video camera) with you whenever you go out to pray or sidewalk counsel at an abortion facility. If you see an ambulance, take pictures and shoot video.
The League can help you get the 911 transcript, too, and even help you put together your own video, documenting the danger of abortion. Get in touch with us if you need help.
Joe Scheidler outside the Robbinsdale Clinic abortion facility, August 6 [Photo by Ann Scheidler]
Pro-Life Action Ministries in St. Paul, MN hosted the first ever national sidewalk counseling symposium last weekend, and the Pro-Life Action League was well-represented. League Director Joe Scheidler spoke on Friday evening, along with Fr. Frank Pavone and Pastor Walter Hoye, to spiritually prepare for the work scheduled for Saturday.
Prior to the Saturday workshops, attendees boarded school buses (not equipped with springs or shock absorbers) and headed for the Robbinsdale Clinic abortion facility, which promotes itself as a family health clinic. Pro-Life Action Ministries owns the building next door to the clinic. The PLAM center includes an office, a chapel and a gathering space.
In the backyard PLAM has erected a platform so that sidewalk counselors have an opportunity to speak to the abortion clinic clients and offer information and alternatives. The front yard of the PLAM house includes a large crucifix and a grotto to Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The local authorities have placed unreasonable restrictions on the pro-lifers in Robbinsdale. A limited number of people can be on the sidewalk. Photographs of the clinic are prohibited. But there is a pro-life presence at the abortion facility whenever they are doing abortions. Babies are being saved in spite of the clinic and the community’s efforts to thwart the pro-lifers’ mission. [Continue reading ...]